Barazani to visit Damascus

The Jordanian weekly al-Majd has reported that chairman of the Kurdistani Democratic Party Massoud Barazani will conduct a visit soon to Damascus to hold talks with Syrian leaders on the latest Iraqi developments.

The paper said that the Syrian leadership warned Jalal Talibani, the chairman of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, who recently visited Damascus, and other Iraqi opposition leaders who are friends to Syria against the consequences of complying with the US and British plans to topple the Iraqi govenment and against being dragged into schemes drawn by foreign forces which may violate Iraqi sovereignty.

The paper added that Talibani responded to the Syrian requests in this respect and showed understanding for Syria's position and promised not to cooperate with any foreign side to plan for toppling the Iraqi government or partitioning Iraq on ethnic or sectarian grounds.

The paper quoted well-informed sources as saying that the Syrian leadership will discuss with Barzani the same issues previously discussed with Talibani and will urge him not to "get involved in enemy schemes aimed at destabilizing Iraq's security in the service of US and Israeli interests in partitioning Iraq and expelling millions of the Palestinians to Iraq and having access to the Gulf oil resources.